Aaaaa…. the loyal doughnut. So many varieties, so many flavors and so many shapes. Who can resist a good doughnut? So every loyal little star needs to be celebrated aka National doughnut day!! 😁
This is celebrated every first Friday of June. For many it’s just buying a great tasting doughnut, but for others there is a true meaning behind the doughnuts.
A “hole” lot more to doughnuts…
Not only are doughnuts delicious but in actually fact, doughnuts have a very interesting history behind them. According to Wikipedia, it started back in 1938 as a fundraiser for Chicago’s The salvation Army and as an honor to the “Lassies” of World war I. These girls served doughnuts to the soldiers, later known as the Doughnut girls. This tradition carried on into the world war II.
So remember to celebrate this doughnut day with some delicious doughnuts. Why not try to make you own. It’s a bit time consuming, but just because your dough needs to rise, the cooking and decorating of the doughnut goes rather quick.
Baked or Fried?
This is a very personal preference. Some might prefer a baked doughnut, while others might like a fried doughnut more. I Mean, Baked doughnuts almost seems healthier, right? But the texture is really never like a perfect doughnut. To me a baked doughnut almost seems a bit like a dried out cake. A fried doughnut in the other hand is definitely the traditional way of cooking a doughnut. They tend to be more fluffier and very airy. So I definitely flavor frying doughnuts.
The perfect doughnut recipe
Ingredients
This recipe makes about 16 -18 doughnuts, depending on the size. And takes about 2-3 hours to make.
150 ml Buttermilk (room temperature)
90 ml Water (lukewarm)
1 egg (Room temperature & beaten)
57 g Butter, Melted
450g All purpose flour
60g Sugar
5 ml Salt
7g yeast (1 packet)
Oil for frying (Sunflower oil works good)
Filling or topping of your own choice
Instructions
Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl (Or your stand mixer bowl, if using). Put the lukewarm water in a cup and sprinkle the yeast over. Let it sit for 5 minutes. You can add 1 teaspoon of sugar to help the yeast react faster.
Now, make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients, then pour in the buttermilk, egg, melted butter and the yeast mixture.
Using the dough hook on your stand mixture, slowly mix until a dough forms, continue to mix for another 5 minutes or so.
If you are mixing by hand, still make a well and follow the steps as mentioned above, but work and knead your dough until elastic.
Cover the mixed dough with greased cling wrap and let it rest until it has doubled in size.
Once the dough has doubled, knead on a lightly floured surface. With a rolling pin, roll out your dough to about 2 cm thickness. Cut round circles (+/- 8 cm in diameter) use a smaller round cutter to cut out the hole.
Lay the cut circles on a parchment paper lined tray. Cover with some greased cling wrap and let them rest until they have doubled in size.
Heat your oil. Test if your oil is hot enough by dropping a small bit of dough into the oil, if it starts to fry immediately, your oil is ready.
Drop the doughnuts carefully into the hot oil, not allowing them to touch. fry them until golden brown and then turn over to fry the other side as well until golden brown. Do this in batches until all the doughnuts are fried.
Once they are are done, take them out of the oil and drain on a paper towel.
Finishing touches on your perfect doughnut
There are so many ways to enjoy your doughnuts, with a hole, without a hole, With some sugar, or perhaps cinnamon sugar. How about the traditional glaze, or a delicious jam, cream or even nutella filling. Oh, the options are endless….
Glaze is probably the most popular choice. If you are unsure on how to make a glaze, check out this link for some tips. https://www.livingdelish.com/5-great-icing-types-to-try-today/ It’s really easy to make a glaze. Just remember if your glaze is to thin it might run off your doughnut. This is easy to fix. Just add more icing sugar to thicken the mixture up. Once your icing is made, dip your doughnut’s top into the icing and place icing side up on a cooling rack to set. If you want to you can add some sprinkles or even sprinkle nuts to decorate them.
My personal favorite is a simple cinnamon sugar doughnut. Simply mix some sugar, about 1/2 cup, with about 5 ml of cinnamon. Once you fried your doughnut, drain them on paper towel, then dip them into the sugar mixture. Make sure to cover the whole doughnut.
Enjoy your perfect doughnuts!!
